and I can live with anybody but BOS and LAA

with Swish, Dye, Crede, and Griffey. It looks like their a loose club that have a lot of fun, I hope they can make a run.

I loved when the team hung Swishers Jersey from right field wall…

then the Twins. Great stories. I also am pulling for the Phillies due to their long history of ineptitude and their downtrodden fanbase.

when my days are starting to run thin and there’s a real question of whether it will happen in my lifetime …

I’m definitely rooting for the Rays … after them, I suppose the Twins in the AL and either Milwaukee or LA in the NL …

ANYONE but the Red Sox and Angels and Cubs. Too much obnoxiousness from the fans. Screw ESPN!

is it happening the year they drop “Devil” … you just know what certain communities will make of that.

I would like to see Cubs/Red Sox…..Great story lines and Fenway and Wrigley for 7 games? Fantastic.

I hate— HATE— the Tampa Bay Rays. (Disclaimer— the team itself, not individual people). It’s mostly the ridiculous amount of praise lavished on the organization. The 25-page articles in sports publications lauding their business savvy and team building prowess. The extra-long segments on Baseball Tonight detailing how the Rays have laid out a new blueprint for attaining small-market success. The Rays’ GM has been getting called a genius, for crap’s sake. I’m sick of hearing about how great the Rays’ management techniques are and how they represent the class of small market organizations.

Because the fact of the matter is, if you suck so ridiculously for so long and get so many #1 picks in the draft, you should eventually stop sucking. It only took them 10 years. And I’m not even asking that they recognize the A’s for being so good for so long— not just 1 year, cough cough. How about showing that you actually put some thought into the subject and give some of that small-market praise to a team like the Twins, who are still in it even after losing some of the best players in the game.

All of which is a long way to say: I’m rooting for the Twins.

I’d like to see Arizona go far, both to award good management and see Haren strut his stuff. Minnesota too.

Mostly, I’m rooting for the highest A’s draft pick possible. (ducks)

I voted for the Rays because I’m over the Red Sox and Angels, I hate Minnesota baseball and their dumbass manager, the White Sox just piss me off (even though I root for a few of their players individually) and I think Kenny Williams is one of the biggest a-holes in sports, and I won’t root for a National League team unless one of my favorite players is on a playoff team (and the Giants aren’t going to the playoffs for a while, I’m sure).

I’m hoping for a Rays/Cubs World Series because the Cubs making it will be the only way anybody will watch Tampa in the World Series, and I find a sick, wonderful irony in the Cubs finally making it to the World Series only to be beaten by the Tampa Bay freakin’ Rays. Oh the joy that will bring me going to school just a mile or so from Wrigley.

Would just make me puke. On one side you have lame, know nothing fans, who leave the game in the 6th inning to “beat traffic.” On the other you have [IMO] the most know it all, most obnoxious and the most racist fan base in all of sports. I would not even watch that series on highlights.

I’m rooting for the Rays. Young, small market, low payroll team with a crappy stadium (remind you of anyone?). However, I fear their bullpen issues (i.e. Troy Percival) will catch up to them eventually.

I’d like the Cubs to get to the WS but then lose to the Rays. It’s just funner having them be the “loveable losers.”

Is this some way to avoid being labeled “a homer” BBG? ;)

I would like to see the Rays and Cubs in the WS, but I’m torn about which one I would want to win. It’s been 100 years for the Cubs, but then again, the Rays have never even come close (albeit in a much shorter existence).

You are fascinated by Manny? Blez, I demand that BBG be stripped of her editor privileges, her posting privileges entirely and while we are at it will someone please take her keys?

but I do like one Dodger, Russell Martin.
Otherwise am rooting for Anaheim & Boston to lose.

Let’s look at the other “choices”.
1. LAAAAAAAAAA – no comment necessary
2. Red Sux – ditto #1
3. Twins – this is the least objectionable choice of those not starting with Tampa.
4. White Sox – Ozzie, Kenny, and Hawk – enough said.
5. Mutts – they’re from NYC – screw ‘em.
6. Cubs – One baseball tradition that I absolutely adore is that of the Cubs being losers, so let’s not give up on them now.
7. Dodgers – one word – 1989
8. Brewers – this was Selig’s team, so, sorry, no sympathy here.
9. D-backs – I feel sorry for them, too, but the fact is that any team that gives Eric Byrnes a big contract deserves to lose, and lose big.

And as to go along with what Trainman just posted, anybody who voted for the LA Celestial Beings of Irvine needs to be immediately bANninated.

This post is on the Halos Heaven “AL West Champions” thread by someone who’s signature is “Angels fan since ’67”:

And let’s…
Celebrate good times… Come on!!!! (It’s a celebration)

What?! Does he/she realize this is the A’s celebretory theme song? Or was that an intentional dig? Either way, I dislike the LAAAAA even more now.

… to sweep both AL series, then to win 3 quick games in the WS, then to go out to a massive lead in game 4 — and then to lose 3 straight games, go up to a big lead in game 7, have the Cubs slowly chip away at said lead, then for K-Fraud to come in the close it out — and for K-Fraud to give up the first-ever come-from-behind, Series-reversing walkoff HR.

To Rich Harden.

And then to have the Slegna re-sign K-Fraud to a 6-year $105M extension.

Who the hell is voting for the Angels in this poll? They should be tried for treason and executed by a firing squad!

Classy group of fans over there and 100 years is nice and even.

the Angels or the Sux

First off, further proof that bbg and I think alike (not meant to be creepy), I woke up thinking about doing a post like this, from a historical (naturally) standpoint.

As cool as it would be to see the Rays go all Cinderella on us, I am rooting for the Cubs. One, my brother in-law is born and raised fan (something I can relate too), and he does not fall into the category of obnoxious. Well, not when it comes to baseball. And he roots hard for the A’s, so it only seems fair. Besides, any team with a “goat” curse, has to be pretty cool, eh, Nico?

And for those not on the Cubs’ wagon, think of how they will be like just another team if they win. No more “It’s been ____ years.” (Of course, when it was Boston, I never wanted to see that streak end).

Speaking of the Sox, if it ends up being Chicago and Boston in the Series, Joe Buck’s head might explode from delirium.

Well, my time is up. You’ve been great.

I know everyone else has moved on to hating the Red Sox and Angels, but I still think of the Twins as our team’s primary antagonist. I guess I’m still stuck in 2002, but I haven’t forgotten that they broke the streak and they embarrassed us in a pathetic ALDS that we should have won, in the one year that was our best shot at the World Series.

Also, they’re our only real rival in the “low budget team that is competitive year after year” category.

People look at the Cubs differently than the Red Sox and the Yankees because, well, they choke, and I guess that makes them loveable (losers). But if you are an A’s fan, the Cubs represent everything the Red Sox and Yankees are and everything that the A’s cannot do.

The Cubs can go out and buy whoever they want. They want guys like Fukudome… or Soriano… they just go out and spend more money than every other team.

And for every Cubgasm there is when Cubs fans have to bring up their prospects or players and how great they are, even though people are talking about football, God kills a kitten.

Because of Harden, and the Cubs for their long drought, but I couldn’t help but feeling I’m throwing my vote away, they will pull a Cub, for sure.

The next choice is White Sox because of Swisher. Too bad with the Quentin thing. I think with him, Swish, Dye, they can do something special. I also want o’ Danny boy in Arizona to do well. I would be OK with any combination of ChiSox/Rays vs Cubs/D-Backs WS.

they are my second favourite baseball team so I guess this decision is just super easy for me :)

sorry…I think an upper Midwest Series (Twins/Bewers) would be good for baseball…people could talk about cheese and deer hunting and the exciting Gopher/Badger rivalry…no, seriouisly.

because I think the Rays winning the World Series might just give Bud Selig the worst case of heartburn he’s ever experienced.

is having to watch games played in the two most hideous stadiums in baseball. Balls being lost in the roof at the Metrodome and arguments over which catwalk the fly ball hit at Tropicana Field…argggh. Rooting for the Angels or Red Sox is unthinkable. Does that leave the White Sox? A.J.! Ozzie! Bleah.

If the A’s aren’t involved, I generally just find myself hoping for an entertaining and competitive series. I didn’t really care about either the Rockies or the Diamondbacks until postseason last year; they both became good stories last October.

Manny’s departure makes the Red Sox pretty dull, I think. I guess David Ortiz is stil exciting to watch. Other than that, who is there to get excited about on the Sox? Dice-K? Cool nickname, but is he that exciting to watch? Jason Bay? Kevin Youkilis? I’m not seeing the excitement.

Meanwhile, the White Sox have plenty to get excited about. I grant you that Carlos Quentin’s injury makes them less exciting, but still: They have slugging power (Thome, Dye) and star power (Griffey). They have former A’s (Dye, Swisher). They have players you can take a hating interest in (Pyrzinski). They have a crazy manager who’s sure to be good for some fun postseason sound bites. In conclusion: this is NOT the Twins.

I just got this email from mlbtv.com

Dear MLB.TV Subscriber,

Starting Tonight: Both home and away feeds will be included as part of your MLB.TV Premium subscription. Watch Live streams of your favorite team’s home broadcasts even when they are on the road.

No more compulsory Hud & Phys!!

Identify yourselves and prepare for excommunication.

I’m going for the Rays, then Twins, I suppose. Pretty ambivalent about the NL teams. As long as the BoSox and Angels lose, I’ll be okay.

Bring the goat to all the games and break the curse!!

He is sure the Cubs will blow it to the Rays. The Goat will be there, Bartman, and the Rays will win in 7 games and Lou will have a heart attack.

therefore i side with the Rays first, then the brew crew, then twins. I don’t want to hear about Manny, and I don’t want to hear about the Cubs for the next 3 years of baseball.

Rays in the AL as the sexy pick. I would love a Rays/Brewers World Series, much as FOX would hate it! >:-)

What the’re doing this year, and the fact that the Yankees will be surly going home after September makes the misery of the A’s alot more easily digestible..How about those fights with Rays against the Yankees and Red Sox too… Awesome, it’s like a frickin Rocky movie!